An apple doesn’t drop by itself before it’s ripe. And unless fate delivers us a hard blow natural ripeness applies equally to experience. Experts are quick to tell us, or we tell ourselves, to let go of whatever – an attachment, a fear, a grievance, an addiction, a desire, melancholy, sadness, the ego, and so on, while we are enmeshed with our life and its phenomena. The best chance of ripening towards a possible potential lies in keeping one’s balance on the tightrope of contradictions, that is, the fine line between the particle state and the wave state – as in Blake’s ‘Kiss the joy while flies.’
Natural letting go happens every second. We breathe, well, we are breathed, though we mainly notice when the rhythm of our breath is disrupted – through pain, exhaustion, anger, anxiety, anger or sheer exasperation, when anyone uttering, ‘Calm down,’ deserves a punch.
(Thanks Joe Linker for the great doodle)
Emotional balance wavers from day to day, but when self-blame knots up our muscles it makes sense to focus on the body. There are plenty of ways to relax: exercise, sex, music, singing, mantras, doodling, magnesium, weed, pills, wine … or to imagine brilliant light circling through the breath, like the basic drone of a reed harmonium or a tanpura holding up multiple sounds. Everything in nature has an essential frequency, which tends to flush out what obstructs its flow, even if it takes earthquakes, storms and floods. To right imbalances of the planet is beyond individuals, we can however bring a clear intention towards balancing our body’s frequency. Try this:
Inhale through your nose – draw brilliant light from head the chest – counting to 7
Exhale through your mouth – let the light flow to your feet and out – counting to 11
Imagine the out breath taking along the tensions held in your muscles. A few rounds of this ritual should calm the heartbeat for a while. Being in resonance with your body draws the shy soul closer, bringing a sense of oneness – satiating our thirst for belonging. And it makes us aware that beauty is not in things, but in the soul of things, even the tiniest thing has soul.
Enjoy the circular sound by the wonderful mantra singer Hein Braat.
However, a constant sense of oneness is not what evolution is about. In a time and space structured cosmos we cannot cage harmony. Reality is the result of contradiction.
Our struggle for balance can be intense. But each of us has the chance to live with zest, inspired by the earth spirit and its dark power for spontaneous creation born of sadness and pain. Garcia Frederico-Lorca talked about art being inspired in three ways: by muses of the past, angelic visons of the future, and by duende – inspiration of the present. Duende springs from the core of one’s being in direct confrontation with death. You can read Lorca’s remarkable speech here: ‘Theory and Play of the Duende.’
… You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves … from – Mary Oliver, ‘Wild Geese’
I was given the text on duende when i first returned to South Africa after 18 years away to play ten days of concerts… it almost helped, too 🙂
but what IS important is to learn how to relax into it, letting go if you can or just letting be if you must… you cannot MAKE creativity happen
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when it happens it’s exhilarating
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Thx for using the comic doodle, Ashen. More signs of a misspent youth and inability to relax. I,m learning to breathe tho.
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love what you do with your pens
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Letting go is an art and this is an excellent post. Yes, I practice breathing to “let go” of stress and pain. It IS helpful! Thanks!
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Thanks Gwynn. When carried away by stress it’s only in retrospect that I accept my agitation over something gone plain wrong triggered a deeper understanding about past events.
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Once while “Circular breathing” I became so relaxed needed help to bring me back.
What a buzz!B
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🙂 The healing happening during sleep is magical.
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What a beautiful, calming post – thank you
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Thank you Diane ☼
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Thank you for these inspiring and deeply touching thoughts and insights, wellknown and timeless and ever again to be remembered ❤️
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‘Within the armour is the butterfly and within the butterfly is the signal of another star.’ – Phillip K. Dick –
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Beautiful post and full of wisdom. I love the apple metaphor. 😀 Happy moments.
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Of course Eve was the brave and curious one.
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It’s tough to find balance sometimes.. I will remember to take a few deep breaths today xx
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Thanks for sharing. Enjoyed!
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